BIOFUELS: The Environment
Earth: There’s Only One
Biofuels are different from fossil fuels with regard to greenhouse gases but similar to fossil fuels in that biofuels contribute to air pollution. Burning produces airborne carbon particulates, carbon monoxide and nitrous oxides. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimated 3.7 million premature deaths worldwide in 2012 due to air pollution.
As an example, Brazil burns significant amounts of ethanol biofuel. Gas chromatograph studies were performed of ambient air in São Paulo, Brazil, and compared to Osaka, Japan, which does not burn ethanol fuel. Atmospheric formaldehyde was 160% higher in São Paulo and acetaldehyde was 260% higher than in Osaka.
Some scientists have expressed concerns about land-use change in response to greater demand for crops to use for biofuel and the subsequent carbon emissions. The payback period (the time it will take biofuels to pay back the carbon debt they acquire due to land-use change) has been estimated to be between 100 and 1000 years, depending on the specific instance and location of land-use change.
The production of some types of biofuels have not only led to increased emissions of carbon dioxide, but also to lower efficiency of forests to absorb the gases that participating farms emit. In addition, the intensive use of monocropping (growing the same crop year after year on the same land) requires large amounts of water irrigation, fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. This not only leads to poisonous chemicals dispersing in water runoff, but also to the release of nitrous oxide (NO2) as a fertilizer byproduct — 300 times more efficient in producing a greenhouse effect than carbon dioxide (CO2).
Converting rainforests, peatlands, savannas or grasslands to produce food crop-based biofuels in Brazil, Southeast Asia and the US creates a biofuel ‘carbon debt’ by releasing 17 to 420 times more CO2 than the annual greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions that the same biofuels would provide by displacing fossil fuels. Biofuels made from waste biomass or from biomass grown on abandoned agricultural lands, on the other hand, incur little to no carbon debt.
How does Biofuel Production Impact the Environment?
The overall performance of different biofuels in reducing fossil energy use and greenhouse gas emissions varies widely when considering the entire life cycle from production through transport to use. The net balance depends on the type of feedstock, the production process and the amount of fossil energy needed.
Increased biofuels production will be achieved through improved land productivity and through expansion of cultivated area, using existing cropland as well as less-productive land. However, it is more likely that biofuels will intensify the pressure on the fertile lands where higher returns can be achieved.
When forests or grasslands are converted to farmland, whether to produce biofuel feedstocks or to produce other crops displaced by feedstock production, carbon stored in the soil is released into the atmosphere. The effects can be so great that they negate the benefits of biofuels, and lead to a net increase in greenhouse gas emissions when replacing fossil fuels.
Crops for biofuel production require irrigation, straining local water resources. In addition, water quality can be affected by soil erosion and runoff containing fertilizers and pesticides. Changes in land-use and intensification of agricultural production may harm soils.
Biofuel production can affect biodiversity. For example, habitat is lost when natural landscapes are converted into energy-crop plantations or peatlands are drained. But biofuel crops can also have a positive impact, such as when they are used to restore degraded lands. The impacts depend on the way the land is farmed. Various techniques and the use of certain plant species can reduce adverse impacts or even improve soil quality.
In order to ensure environmentally sustainable biofuel production, it is important that good agricultural practices be observed, and measures to ensure sustainability should be applied consistently to all crops.
Existing policies designed to achieve energy security and climate change mitigation have demonstrated limited success and must be reviewed now and at various stages along the biofuel growth timeline.
National policies must recognize the international consequences of biofuel development and
cooperation at the international level is the only way to correct global agricultural policy failure and improve allocation of resources.
As guests on this beautiful planet, we should be able to agree that we cannot allow this:
To become this:
Because we want cheaper fuel for this:
Environmental, economic and ethical issues affecting and affected by biofuel production are inextricably linked. As mentioned, biofuel growth must be guided by international policies that promote ethical, sustainable biofuel production and protect the most vulnerable — poor farmers, land and water resources and endangered ecosystems. We must direct our considerable intellectual resources and our ethics to guide us in this and all endeavors involving the planet we share.
Upcoming articles will focus on the policy and ethics needed to guide biofuel production as well as some overall advantages and disadvantages of biofuels as an energy source.
Alkane thanks Greenfacts.org, Greenpeace and Google.com for the content of this article.
Alkane Truck Company is currently raising capital on the crowdfunding platform StartEngine. Find out more here: https://www.startengine.com/startup/alkane
